Chelsea struggled last season, but even so, some of their stars are hotcakes in the transfer market: Mason Mount, Kai Havertz, Marc Cucurella, and Mateo Kovacic are all linked with moves this summer. Of these Chelsea stars, Arsenal were interested in Mount but now have their eyes on Kai Havertz.
The Gunners’ bid to bring the German on board is progressing well, and there’s talk the two clubs are in contact about the transfer and likely to reach a compromise on how much the deal could cost. The player is dead set on moving to the Emirates, as he has already reportedly agreed on personal terms to be a Gunner.
By now, it is almost certain Havertz will join, and if he does, there is one thing many are eager to see: this is where the 24-year-old plays. There’s talk that he could play as the lead striker, or take over the Xhaka role and play the No. 8 role alongside Odegaard.
As Gooners debate where the potential £60 million arrival could be unleashed in Arteta’s line-up, Craig Burley has brought another interesting aspect to Havertz at Arsenal. The ESPN pundit is insinuating the Chelsea forward could be benched at the Emirates even after joining for a record fee, has questioned whether Havertz could be afforded the chance to start in Arsenal’s best line-up.
“If Arsenal were to play the same way as last year, he won’t get in the team,” said Burley.
“He doesn’t get in ahead of [Gabriel] Martinelli; he doesn’t get in ahead of [Gabriel] Jesus as a striker.
“And he certainly doesn’t get in ahead of Bukayo Saka.
“Then you start looking at; are Arsenal paying £70m to beef the squad up? Which effectively you might say that Man City have done that; they got [Jack] Grealish, and they got [Riyad] Mahrez.
“A £70 million player used to be a superstar; we could contend now that they could be a squad player.
“He’s really lost his way, to an extent where Chelsea couldn’t score goals; he couldn’t even get a game in a team that had literally no strikers.
“And now we have Arsenal talking about paying this kind of money for him. It doesn’t add up.”
Do you think Havertz is a guaranteed starter if he successfully joins Arteta’s project? And who could he replace?
Darren N
In place of Xhaka. He will also get a lot of game time to rotate with Oddegard and Saka and maybe Jesus. He will thus be an important squad member.
I believe he’d be a starter in Xhaka’s position for EPL. Smith-Rowe, Vieira and Trossard may have to be squad rotation players in AM positions for the cup competitions
So we’ll bench ESR that has the potential(and has proven) to be in the top 3 scorers in the squad….makes complete sense, even though Smith suits the Xhaka roll much more that Havertz that plays higher up
it will be 8 , rotate at 10, and in front three if required. See ESPN
You dont pay 70 mil for someone to sit on your bench, otherwise you stand still or go backwards. So i doubt he is being bought for the bench at all. I dont get this transfer at the moment, i just dont see the relevance of him.
Totally agree
It means the valuable ESR will rot on the bench barring any long term injuries
He is left footed and very attacking. Puts in a good tackle which Xhaka can’t and can score. A good header of the ball. So his price is 45 Million (60 million less the 15 million Arsenal get from Xhaka). That’s a good bargain for a player with Premier League experience and a Champions League medal. He will be the only player in Arsenal’s squad to have won a champions league medal.
Odegard have 3 champion’s league medal
John O’Shea also has a champions league medal
He will replace Xhaka, in the attacking number 8 position.
The only player I don’t want near our team for his crazy price tag is Rice. Dude is so average, he doesn’t worth half the 100m.
Hervetz, I don’t know how he will replace xhaka bcos he is a pure attacking minded player Suited for false 9, 10 or wing positions while xhaka is a b 2 b midfielder.
He comes, it means either of Viera or Smith Rowe will find another club.
I don’t see any problem in spending big on any player that can add up to our team. This mindset of untouchables in ‘STARTING 11s’ should get out of our heads! Unless you’re buying backup/squad players then It’s okay to struggle with the wallet; but if we’re to have a competitive squad with almost even quality when rotated,
then spending big on quality is the way to go.
Lastly, by trusting the process – I don’t know why I feel like I’m going to see the (Salah/Debruyn = blossoming away from Chelsea) vibes in Harvetz!!! Arteta is seeing something mates…
Has he ever played the ‘8’ position before? Does he look well suited to it?
To me, he looks like another trossard in terms of the positions he covers on the pitch – and we already have trossard.
Mount I think *is* a cm, or has at least played there before, so that would have at least made sense, but I’m unclear on where this signing would fit into our squad
And I think rice would be the 8 in our team, if he signs
Exactly what I was thinking. No doubt he’s a good player, but where would be fit in?
Why not just use those funds for a true CM? Why constantly try and shoehorn players into positions?
Versatility is good and great for seval players to cover multiple positions, but every player doesn’t need to be versatile.
Otherwise you end up with Jacks of all trades, but masters of none. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best, square pegs in square holes.
Sensible logical thinking D and as I mentioned in my response to the article on ESR, do we need Havertz?
In my opinion Havertz is a mix between Ozil and Van Persie.
It seems to me the gaffer need a specialist for the final third, someone
to engineer or lead the navigation around the low block teams.
The pursuit of Havertz may very well means Ilkay Gundogan has informed Arsenal that he won’t join.
What this purchase is saying to me there will be a lot more tactical moves in the upcoming campaign specifically in the final third.
Is the mix 5% Ozil and 8% Van Persie?
I watched Havertz yesterday and all i feel is shame for my club. Reports are saying Chelsea is talking up Lavia .
70M on a Chelsea reject to sit on our bench! The 72M for Pepe and 35M on Vieira, pale in comparison to this atrocious deal.
Even the Willian deal was better.
Add to that, it shows how ineffective and totally useless our own scouting and recruiting system is. Of all the players on planet Earth, (probably even on Mars too) couldn’t they find a better a target or targets for 70M?
Heads need to roll if this disaster of a deal goes through.
Agree
Still can’t wrap my head around the logic behind a Havertz signing.
If does happen, it will be one of the most terrible decisions in recent times.
Is there something Arteta sees that we don’t?
Are we not sleep walking into a Fabio Viera pro-max signing?
We wait to see.
Well if he signs I’m not sure why smith Rowe would want to stay ,he was overlooked at the back end of last season for Artetas awful signing Veira ,how will he even get game time with him coming in and also Trossard playing the same area of the pitch .
yo me the deal is baseless, harvetz is not arsenal standard, just watch his games and see what i mean, he is veru useless and CAN NOT SCORE GOALS…IN A TEAM THAT IS AVERAGE YET, HE CANT COMMAND A STARTING 11 and HARDLY assist !
pls is this a nightmare?
to me the deal is baseless, harvetz is not arsenal standard, just watch his games and see what i mean, he is veru useless and CAN NOT SCORE GOALS…IN A TEAM THAT IS AVERAGE YET, HE CANT COMMAND A STARTING 11 and HARDLY assist !
pls is this a nightmare?
to me the deal is baseless, harvetz is not arsenal standard, just watch his games and see what i mean, he is very useless and CAN NOT SCORE GOALS…IN A TEAM THAT IS AVERAGE YET, HE CANT COMMAND A STARTING 11 and HARDLY assist !
pls is this a nightmare?
I find all this talk and conjecture that HAVERTZ COULD REPLACE XHAKA, to be utter nonsense. Thye play in totally different .
I dont want HAVERTZ AT ALL. Not for even £20 mill. We need far better than him. It is a deeply depressing error to be probably soon made. Sigh!
Odegaard will replace Xhaka because he can do the defensive work and Kai will be the more attacking option. But in reality it will end up being a 5 man defensive wall and 5 man attacking line with Zinchenko the link between the 2 lines.
Ramsdale
White
Saliba
Gabriel
Partey
Zinchenko
Martinelli
Odegaard
Saka
Havertz
Jesus
@ Durand
I dont think we have that many versatile players in the squad. There is only about 3 or maybe 4 who can play comfortably in 2 different positions. Those being:-
1. White – CB & RB
2. Thomiyasu – RB & LB
3. Jesus – CF or WING (which i havnt seen yet due to our exceptional wingers.
4. Saka – LW & RW
Havertz would be the 5th – CAM or CF
The two most obvious reasons managers like versatile players are (1) to reduce a squad & thus your wage bill. (2) to change tactics during a game or the next game and thus confusing the opposition.
Agreed though i think we are still short of 1 specialist DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER in the Partey mold.
I have reached saturation in the Summer Transfer window stories.
I will shut up until the window finally closes and take stock of the final ins and outs.
I JUST HOPE ONE OF OUR DYNAMIC DUO DOES NOT TURN OUT TO BE “THE BOY BLUNDER”
Quick, strong, 6’3”, left footed and technically brilliant. And he’s German too. 3 seasons of EPL experience and 3 years of sorrow time at Chelsea. Unlike Hazard, still got the fire to reach his ambitions. Almost a perfect deal to ignore.
He would be a starter if we were really buying a player at the cost of over £60m who had the skill,flair and physicality to immediately slot in and play as a left sided number 8 in this Arsenal team.Unfortunately this player is not called Eberechi Eze but Kai Havertz and from what I’ve seen over the course of the last 3 Seasons…the latter is slightly more capable of playing in this role than Fabio Vieira…which isn’t saying much…If Arsenal really do want to keep and play ESR then they should have already tried him.in this position.If Arsenal want to waste another £100m plus (fee and salary) on another German International who isn’t suited to the pace and physicality of the EPL then we will unfortunately have to suffer Havertz over the course of the next few years.Arteta might be a good coach but he isn’t a magician and should have leant by now that you only overpay for Premier League players who are absolutely ready to slot straight into your match day squad…Not pay that type of money for someone who has been seen to be wanting under the tutelage of three different coaches…This will unfortunately be a very expensive mistake.